My New Year's Resolutions - Eight Months Later

It has been a few months since I've posted an update to my New Year's resolutions, and I thought I would give everyone an update as to what I have been able to accomplish so far. So, what have I accomplished? Well, here is what I have been able to do since April:

1. Look up and print other probate records of ancestors who lived and died in Saint Joseph County, Michigan. As of April 1st: I still have not had the chance to look up any more probate records, but I am still hoping to do so this year. As of August 19th: I have not done any research in the probate records of Saint Joseph County, Michigan, and I am unsure as to whether or not I will be able to do before the end of this year.
2. Order more microfilms of Trippstadt, Germany's civil records. As of April 1st: I have ordered two microfilms of death records, and so far, only one has come into the Family History Center. I am still waiting for the second one, and after I have obtained all of the death records, I will be ordering birth and marriage records. As of August 19th: I have looked at book the microfilms that arrived earlier this year, and I found the death records of my ancestors and their siblings. I did not order marriage or civil birth records after the death records arrived. Instead, I ordered a microfilm of the church records to look for the births. I probably should order the civil records for those births and marriages, but I will have to put off that research until I have more time.
3. Order naturalization records for my German-Russian ancestor Anton and his siblings. As of April 1st: I have not ordered any naturalization records, but I still hope to order some of these records. As of August 19th: I have not ordered any naturalization records to date, and I will probably have to wait until I have the time to do so.
4. Obtain the Civil War Pension files for Benjamin and William Oswalt, and try to strengthen their relationship to my ancestor, Adam Oswalt. As of April 1st: I haven't ordered any more pensions files although I would like to do so. As of August 19th: I have not ordered any Civil War Pension files, and I am not sure if I will be able to do so before the end of this year. I might still order them, but I have not decided yet as to whether or not to do so.
5. Find more information on my ancestor, Irene Havens. I am hoping to figure out who her parents are, and what her connection is to Rhoda and the Mandigo family. As of April 1st: A man named Jim, kindly looked up two newspaper notices for a couple of marriages in Rochester, New York and shared the information with me a few days after I posted my resolutions. Of course, I still need to do further research to figure out the exact relationship between my ancestor, the Mandigo family and Rhoda (Havens) Lang(e). As of August 19th: So far I have not focused any attention on or researched my Havens branch. I did obtain Rhoda's death certificate from the Seeking Michigan site, but I have not pursued any of the leads that I have. I do not know if I will be able to do any research into this branch before the end of the year, but I hope to do so next year.
6. Find more information on my WWI veteran great-grandfather's family and ancestors. As of April 1st: I am doing a little research on my great-grandfather's family, but I haven't finished looking at records in Scotland. As of August 19th: I have had someone help me by looking up records for my ancestor's siblings in Scotland's vital records, but I do not believe I am ready to start researching in Irish records. I think I still need to continue looking at Scottish records before I do so. (The person who has been looking up the records for me has been doing so since I started to research my great-grandfather in Scottish records.)
7. Order birth, marriage and death records of ancestors from the United Kingdom. As of April 1st: I haven't ordered any vital records from the U.K., but I hope to order some microfilms of church records the next time I visit the Family History Center. As of August 19th: I have ordered a few microfilms of church records from Lancashire, but I have had limited success in my research. I was able to obtain the baptismal record for an ancestor, but I have mostly had setbacks as I ordered the wrong microfilms for a couple of locations. As for ordering civil vital records from the U.K., I recently attempted to order a couple, but I have encountered some difficulties in trying to do so. (I will explain later in a future post.)
8. I hope to make more connections and to find more ancestors and relatives. As of April 1st: I've contacted a man who had information on a branch of my British ancestors, and he kindly shared the information he with me. Outside of that, I haven't made any other connections. As of August 19th: I was contacted by a woman from Argentina who was also descended from my Kees and Cotta ancestors, and we have been exchanging information over the past few months by e-mail. Outside of those two instances, I have not made any new connections.
9. Publish posts listed in the "Coming Soon" box in a timely manner. As of April 1st: I am still working on this resolution, and I am still behind in publishing the posts I have listed. As of August 19th: I think it probably safe to say that I have failed so far with this resolution. I have not posted articles in the box in the time frame that I set up. Many of the future articles listed have been on the list for months, and at the moment, I am unsure as to when I will get around to posting some of the articles or topics listed in that column. Since I am now back at school, I am afraid that I won't improve in this regard.
10. Improve the writing quality of my posts. As of April 1st: I am still working on this resolution as well. As of August 19th: I am unsure as to whether or not I have improved my writing or accomplished this goal. Has my writing improved? Please feel free to leave comments on my writing skills. Thanks.

As you can see, I have not made too much progress in accomplishing the goals I set out back in December. As to whether or not I will make any more progress before the year ends, I don;t know because I am back at school. If I am able to accomplish another one of my goals before the end of this year, I will be satisfied with my progress.